McKinney City Council Unanimously Approves Mosque Site Plan After Heated Debate

A city council in Texas debated for over five hours on Wednesday night on an upcoming Islamic project.

The McKinney City Council meeting Wednesday extended till later night as they were discussing a site plan for a new mosque in the Texas city. After five hours of discussion, all seven council members voted unanimously to approve the site plan, though more than 100 people signed up to speak during the discussion period, and many of them were against the 'Islamification'. "The freedom to choose our faith or not does not exist in political Islam. Ask any Muslim what the penalty is for leaving political Islam. It's death," US representative Keith Self (R-McKinney) said. "I have any number of videos of imams in America, modern-day America, preaching sedition, open sedition, against the US Constitution and the laws of this land." Former McKinney mayor George Fuller said the mosque's members are part of the city like everyone else. "For American Muslim neighbors at McKinney Islamic Association, sharia is understood as a personal religious framework," Fuller said. "Yes, every religion and every culture has its extremists and radicals, and they should be condemned wherever they exist, but that is not who we're talking about tonight. We're talking about families who have spent decades serving this community and raising their children here, and demonstrating their actions by the values they live by."

What is the Islamic association at the center of the debate?

The McKinney Islamic Association is building a campus on 5.5 acres along Virginia Parkway. In 2024, the association withdrew plans because of the opposition and because it didn't follow the city's standards. It resubmitted plans; this time, instead of one large building, it's three separate buildings: A main sanctuary, classrooms, and a multi-purpose gym, WFAA reported.

Debate at the council meeting

"The Islamification of our country has to stop, and it needs to stop now," said one speaker. In reply, another said this is division and fear. "Every country has this disgusting ideology in their country," said another speaker against the project. Fuller said he got assaulted over this project on Tuesday night. He said when a woman was approaching him, he thought she was going to greet him but she came with papers referencing Sharia law. "I started by saying it's a sad day in McKinney, Texas. What I saw last night was the worst behavior of our community," Fuller said, adding that he won't be pressing charges against the woman and instead he would pray that she becomes a better person.